510 jUNCACEiE. [Narthecium. 



meat and choppinpf-blocks. The more gentle of the craft with us are content to 

 deck their mighty Christmas sirloins with the berry-bearing twigs, and it contri- 

 butes at that festive season, with other evergreens, to the decoration of our churches 

 and dwellings. Though common in England, particularly in the South, it is rare 

 in Scotland, and has not been hitherto discovered in Ireland. 



Though a native of very temperate parts of Europe only, Pallas (Fl. Brassica) 

 asserts that it bears the winters of St. Peteisburgh, which it is enabled probably 

 to do solely when defended by the copious covering of snow which regularly covers 

 the earth in that high latitude from the severe frosts of the climate, since the same 

 plant requires some degree of shelter in the open ground even at Berlin. 



Order LXXVIII. JUNCACE^, Juss. 



" Perianth 6-partite, subglumaceous (usually scarious, some- 

 times herbaceous and coloured internallj'', but at length dry and 

 hard), persistent. Stamens 6, inserted into the base of the seg- 

 ments, or sometimes 3, and then opposite the outer segments. 

 Ovary free, imperfectly 3-celled and many-ovuled, or l-ceUed and 

 3-ovuled. Style 1. Stigmas usually 3, sometimes 1. Fruit cap- 

 sular, with 3 valves, bearing the dissepiment in the middle, rarely 

 closed and by abortion 1-seeded. Embryo minute, cylindrical, at 

 the base of a hard fleshy or cartilaginous albumen. — Herbs. 

 Leaves grassy or sitbulate, with parallel nerves or veins, sometimes 

 wanting." — Br. Fl. 



I. Narthecium, Huds. Bog Asphodel. 



" Perianth petaloid, of 6 linear-lanceolate, spreading, at length 

 connivent, sepals. Stamens woolly. Germen pyramidal. Stigma 

 entire. Capsule 3-celled, at the base 3-valved. Seeds numerous, 

 with an appendage at each extremity." — Br, Fl. 



1. N. ossifragum, Huds. Lancashire Bog Asphodel. Leaves 

 linear uniform equitant, pedicels bracteated above the middle, 

 stamens woolly much shorter than the perianth. Sin. E. Fl. ii. p. 

 151. Br. Fl. p. 455. Li7id. Syn. p. 277. E. B. viii. t. 535. 

 Hook and Graves, Fl. Lond. iv. 



Tn spongy or peaty bogs, wet moory heaths and commons ; not very frequent. 

 Fl. July, August. If. 



E.Med. — Moors by Munsley, near Godshill. Munsley peat-bed, 1849. On 

 the boggy slope of Bleak down, towards Roude, 1843. Most profusely in Alver- 

 ston lynch, 1841. Bogs on the Wilderness. On the marshy skirts o^Lake com- 

 mon, in several places plentifully. Bog at Blackpan, Dr. Bell-Salter, 1844. 



W. Med. — Wood near Tinker's lane. Miss G. KUdcrhee. Freshwater beach, 

 Isle of Wight, Rev. Messrs. Gamier and Poulter in Hamps. Repos. 



Rhizom creeping, white and jointed, emitting copious entangled capillary fibres, 



[Order LXXVII b. MELANTHACE^, R. Brown.] 



Colchicum awtumnale, L., was found by Mr. Daniel Clarke, of Newport, in a 

 field by the Medina above Shide bridge, some years ago, according to Mr. G. 

 Kirkpatrick, but subsequent research has not confirmed the discovery. 



